A Business Student Who Happened to Win the UA Sports Festival
by FictionSoror
Summary: Mai is a first year at UA High's Business Department who spends her time going around hero society with her much more social and daring twin sister Ai. When the Sports Festival comes around she doesn't put too much thought into it, but then she happens to pass the first event, and then the second event. Wait, was this actually possible? Note: this story will read like an anime dub
1. A Few Encounters

"Would Benihama Ai and Benihama Mai please come to Principle Nezu's office? Thank you for your time."

The iconic gentle voice of UA High's principle politely rang across the school lunch room, causing every nearby eye to rotate towards the twin first years.

Mai blinked in confusion, pushed her glasses more firmly on the bridge of her nose, and turned to stare at her sister, whose identical red eyes stared back behind similar black glasses.

"What did you do?" Ai joked in an accusatory tone.

"Maybe I committed a crime and framed you," Mai responded, not missing a beat. "Or maybe it was against the rules for you to turn down being class president."

"Hey, don't bring me into this," Okanate, the actual class president of class 1-G, said, holding her hands up.

"Well, at any rate, I'll wait here for you –"

"Oh, no, I'm taking you down with me." Ai cut Mai off and dragged her out of her seat. "See you!" She waved to the classmates they had been eating with, and received a chorus of 'goodbyes' from them all.

"We'll see you in class," Shimoue said, brushing his metallic blue hair from his eyes.

"As in Ai," Okanate covered as she punched Shimoue under the table. "We'll see you around, Mai." She waved and used her Flexifingers quirk to arrange the tips of her fingers in the shape of a thumbs-up. Sometimes it was a bit weird for Mai to always sit with her sister's friends, but she did love hanging out with the dark-skinned Okanate with her kind purple eyes and nurturing demeanor.

"You're the best Okanate," Ai grinned. She gave a final wave and she and Mai took off down the hall.

"Interesting that he wants both of us though," Ai said, taking on a more contemplative tone.

"Yeah," Mai nodded. "Especially since we're not in the same department, let alone class." Although she ate with Ai and her fellow classmates in Support Department Class 1-G, Mai was actually in the Management Department Class 1-K. Despite the fact they had gotten similar grades in middle school, Ai liked to solve problems by making something, while Mai preferred to solve problems by organizing and optimizing it. Both of the twins wanted to help hero society in the best way they could and, even though their dad wanted them to take the college route, he was very proud when they both were accepted into UA.

"So that would cross off discussing a failed exam," Ai continued.

"Failing something, acting up in class, even getting in trouble should only summon one of us to Principle Nezu's office."

"Maybe one of us broke a rule in front of a teacher who couldn't tell us apart?"

This could be a possibility. Mai and Ai were very identical with their paler than pale skin, unusually bright blonde hair, and deep red eyes with black glasses. Of course, people who knew them well could differentiate between Mai's crimson eyes and more yellow hair and Ai's ruby eyes and more white hair. And there were always context clues, since Mai was quiet and reserved with her personality, keeping it to the people she trusted, meanwhile Ai, on the opposite side of the same coin, was very sociable with her boldness.

"Well, I guess we're about to find out," Mai said as they approached Principle Nezu's office door.

"Do you think Erasurehead is in there too?" Ai smiled, feebly attempting to diffuse the tense apprehension with her schoolgirl crush on the UA teacher. She insisted it was purely support interest in his capture scarf, but Mai had seen her spend way too many hours researching his history as a hero to not mercilessly tease her sister about it.

"Just open the door," Mai muttered. She really hated having no clue what to expect from this meeting or how to prepare herself. She grabbed the back of Ai's sleeve and the two walked inside.

Principle Nezu's office was simple and professional. In the back a perfectly centered desk stood in front of a wall of windows overlooking UA's campus and two nice chairs sat in front of it ready for a conference with the principle. The center of the room had a small couch and an upholstered chair on opposing sides of a table with all the desired items to make tea laid out on it.

"Ah, Miss Benihama and Miss Benihama, I didn't hear you knock."

Mai could hear Ai's breath catch in her throat realizing they forgot to knock. "Where would you like us to sit sir?" Mai's voice slowly became steadier with each word as though she hadn't spoken in days.

"Wherever you would be comfortable."

Mai waited for Ai to choose, but she seemed to be too overwhelmed to think. Right, Mai had forgotten how much of a teacher's pet Ai was; she was terrified of getting in trouble. Generally she played it off well, but Mai supposed directly facing the possibility would overrun everything else. With a small tug on Ai's sleeve, Mai directed her to Principle Nezu's desk and sat down in one of the chairs.

His white animal features (what was he a mouse, a dog, a bear – probably no one really knew) made it difficult to determine his body language, let alone interpret it, and his polite voice was no help at all. Mai folded her hands and just waited, preparing herself for the worst.

"I've been meaning to talk with you since you applied, but it's been a busy start to the year, and even now we have the Sports Festival coming up, but there's no time like the present," he said with a small laugh.

If this was about something before the school year started, then they couldn't be in trouble, but Mai didn't dare feel hope as Principle Nezu continued.

"I wanted to talk to you about your grandmother, since she was also a rare animal possessing a quirk."

"Oh, Marcela?" Ai asked, perking up. "Did you know her?"

"Not personally, but your grandfather set up a meeting for us once many years ago."

It wasn't surprising, Mai and Ai hardly saw their mother's parents since they didn't live in Japan, though Mai did vividly remember what she was like. Marcela was a bat whose quirk was Human Transform. It's pretty self-explanatory, and her quirk also gave her below average human intelligence where she was able to learn sign language and participate in most conversations. She did, however, only answer to the name 'Marcela' and couldn't speak human words. Mai remembered thinking she was kind of like a weird anime girl since even in her human form she had distinct bat-like features and a small amount of fur all over her body, plus she mostly communicated in excited gestures and tended to cling to their grandfather, her husband, as much as possible.

Their grandfather was Marcela's caretaker and spent most of their relationship teaching her how to live in a human society until one day, as their mother told them, she borrowed his mother's wedding ring, handed it to him, and pointed to her left ring finger. Mai had no idea how her grandfather managed to marry and have a daughter with what was legally a near-threatened spectral bat, and to be honest it was extremely uncomfortable to think about, but it was what established her family so Mai mostly ignored the implications.

"Has that heritage impacted your genetics?" Principle Nezu asked.

"Well, not much, because her quirk gave her human biology," Ai said while Mai hoped she wouldn't go into detail. "I mean, we like eating primarily meat, and we'll eat weird stuff like insects and doves –"

"It's had a direct influence on my quirk, and our mother's quirk too," Mai interrupted. Ai's quirk came from their father's genes so Mai doubted she'd immediately think about their family's bat-related quirks. "My quirk is Bat Transform, it's the inverse of Marcela's quirk, and it lets me transform into a bat. I can fly and use echolocation in my bat form, and I've even been able to echolocate a bit in my human form."

"She even flies to school and back, leaving me behind, by the way."

Mai shrugged off Ai's accusing look. Ai's quirk, Blood Energy, allowed her to gain energy exponentially by consuming blood. It was helpful for late night cramming, but not so much for transportation.

"Yes, thanks for mentioning that very important detail." Mai rolled her eyes. "Our mother's quirk is Bat Arms where she can transform her arms into proportional bat wings."

"I see. Now, Miss Benihama Mai, if you would permit me to ask, what happens to your clothes when you transform?"

"Anything inanimate on my body or in my hand goes into my bat form, then returns to its original position when I transform back. I can't access it as a bat, but it's secure while I have my quirk activated."

"It's the same thing for our mother," Ai inputted. "She sometimes transforms her arms when she's holding her keys so she won't forget them."

"Interesting, interesting," Principle Nezu nodded. "It seems Marcela's quirk allowed her to have a normal family, and your grandfather saved her normal life."

"He – what now?" Ai tilted her head to the side and Mai had to bite her lip when she realized she had tilted her head in the same way.

"Having your grandfather as her caretaker and husband saved Marcela from what would be a – a very rough life."

Mai noticed some deep sorrow and resentment behind Principle Nezu's eyes, the first trace of emotion she had seen him show. She always figured life was difficult for him being a unique animal in a human society, but this was something more, clearly he had experienced something horrible. She wanted to say anything to make him feel better, but her thoughts were jumbled together.

"I'm, thank–ry." Mai's words tumbled out of her mouth before her brain could decide on them.

"We appreciate you taking the time to talk with us, Principle Nezu." Ai gracefully managed to pick up where Mai failed. "We really love having you as the head of UA High and all the work you do for it."

"Is there anything else you would like to discuss with us, sir?" Mai asked to cover over her previously failed attempt.

"No I believe you gave me the perfect amount of information." Principle Nezu said, returning to his polite personality. "Thank you for humoring me, and I believe it's time for you two to return to your classes."

* * *

"Sports – fest! Sports – fest! Sports – fest!"

Mai narrowly dodged the excited hero course students leaving class 1-A for the day and bumped into one of her sister's friends.

"Oh yeah, can't wait to have an all-important school festival celebrating one department," he complained, not even noticing Mai.

"Hey, I know the perfect tea to go with that salt," Okanate's voice retorted.

"Isn't it cool though? We might get to meet the next generation of heroes and see them in action!" Shimoue appeared next to Mai with his brown eyes shining in abrupt excitement.

"Yeah, that's whatever, but –"

"Oh there you are Mai." Ai suddenly linked her arm with Mai's. "Ready to head home?"

"I'm going now." Mai activated her quirk – it was kind of like flexing a specific group of muscles – transformed, and flew off, Ai yelling at her back. Mai just ignored it; when Ai walked home by herself she was able to use her quirk and run the distance, arriving home less than ten minutes later than Mai in her bat form. Of course, Ai didn't think of that, she just wanted someone to chat with the whole way.

It was a nice clear day, which was perfect for flying home. Mai passed a few heroes in action, but she was too ready to get home to stop and watch. With her parents both needing space for their work they were fortunate to have a house not far from UA, and Mai was very grateful for the relatively short flight. When she reached her front doorstep she transformed back and pulled the key from her backpack. She didn't bother fully shutting the door behind her because her echolocation caught a figure sprinting not far behind her, which she knew had to be Ai.

After kicking off her shoes she hurried up the stairs to the main landing. She could hear her father's voice coming out of his workroom and called "I'm home" before she even reached the top step.

"And I assume Ai's not far behind?" Benihama Tadashi's workroom was in full view of the stairs and the door was wide open, emitting a feel of constantly stirring dust and revealing a mess of papers spread over tables, chairs, and household research machines. "Sir, this is one of my daughters, Mai," he said as he put his arm around Mai's shoulders and walked her into the room, where she realized another man was standing. Her breath caught in her throat when she recognized him as the pro-hero Sir Nighteye, who, in addition to being a successful pro-hero, was also the sidekick to the number one hero All Might up until this past year.

"Mai's a first year at UA High," Tadashi said, his deep brown eyes sparkling with pride. "She probably has a blueprint in her room now for her own hero agency."

"So you have an interest in hero society?" Sir Nighteye looked up from his papers and locked eyes with her. Mai was too overwhelmed to answer and instead found herself focusing on his blinking. Sir Nighteye leaned closer towards her face. "Tell me a joke."

Mai felt her mouth drop in confusion, but instead of coherent words a small squeak inched out and, in a panic, she accidentally activated her quirk. Flapping around like a baby bird, she briefly flew into her father's black hair, and was soon escaping out the front door. Before she reached the end of the sidewalk, she flew into Ai running at full speed and both girls fell off balance.

"Ugh, Mai!" Ai exclaimed, patting the walkway looking for her glasses. "How hard is it to echolocate where you're going? You know I'm blinder than you without these things."

Mai hit the ground and transformed back into her human form. "Our father's got a pro-hero in there!"

"What – a pro-hero?" Ai shoved her glasses on her nose.

"Sir Nighteye! When he saw me he demanded I tell him a joke." Mai paused to swallow. "How am I supposed to respond to that? Like with a knock knock joke? Knock knock, who's there, a world famous pro-hero, make sure you have pants on!"

"Wait, he just told you to make a joke?" Ai frowned and Mai suddenly felt a wave of dread as her twin took the situation on as her own problem. "Even if you were a social butterfly, that's just rude! Alright, let's go." She grabbed Mai's wrist and went on the warpath.

"Ohhhh don't drag me into this pleeeease don't drag me into this," Mai moaned as she was towed into the house and upstairs to their father's workroom.

"Excuse me, Sir Nighteye pro-hero sir, did you just tell my sister to make a joke?"

Sir Nighteye hesitated, glancing between the twins.

"Yes, he did," Tadashi answered. "This is my other daughter, Ai."

"Hi nice to meet you and lest you think my sister is an antisocial loser I'm going to tell you what she said outside." Ai finally paused to take a second breath. "She said, almost word-for-word: 'how do I respond to that, like with a knock knock joke? Knock knock. Who's there? A world-famous pro-hero, make sure you have pants on."

Sir Nighteye stared at Ai for a moment, then he smiled a little and gave a small chuckle. "Not bad."

"And what kind of request is that anyway, demanding someone tell you a joke, who does that?" Ai's tone of voice made it clear she was not at all intimidated by Sir Nighteye, and her firm grip on Mai's hand made sure neither of them were leaving their spots.

"As future members of the hero society, I believe it is important for you to have an unyielding sense of humor to comfort civilians."

"Wait, did you assume we're in the hero department?" Ai demanded, her voice becoming even more dangerous.

"Ai, that was probably my fault." Tadashi intercepted her wrath. "I mentioned Mai's plans for her future hero agency. I apologize Sir Nighteye, my daughter Mai is in the Management Department of UA and her plans for her hero agency are purely from the business side of things."

"It's really more of hero dispatching unit with its current design," Mai added.

"And I'm in the Support Department," Ai said, now completely nonchalant as if she hadn't been close to fighting a pro-hero a moment ago. "I – uh, I don't have many plans beyond that. So, why are you here sir hero?"

"That's classified." Sir Nighteye said coldly. Mai was glad Ai had asked him; if she had gotten an answer like that she might have transformed and flown away again. Ai opened her mouth with an indignant response at the ready, but their father saved her from worsening the pro-hero's impression of her.

"He needed me to analyze a blood sample." Tadashi's quirk was Blood Knowledge, which allowed him to know certain details of a person by ingesting their blood (blood type, age, gender, general appearance, sometimes he could even detect an illness). "Alright, girls, you should probably start on your homework."

"Nice to meet you Sir Nighteye." Ai and Mai bowed respectfully and went off to their rooms, Mai glad to have the ordeal over with and Ai just happily going on with life.

"You know, it's a shame they're not training to be heroes." Mai heard Sir Nighteye say as the door began to shut. "I would have loved to see them shine in the UA Sports Festival."


	2. The UA Sports Festival

"Hey Dad, can I raid your spare blood supply for perfectly normal reasons?"

"I put all the blood packs I could spare on the table. Whoops, glasses, hun." Mai ducked as Tadashi reached over her to catch his wife's glasses before they completely fell off her face. "I'll keep in touch for dinner, Mitsuramon," he added, using his college nickname for her.

"Hospital or police?" She asked, fixing her glasses and pouring him a travel mug. With his quirk, Tadashi would do contracting-like jobs for several groups, most frequently the hospital and the police. When he wasn't doing a contracting project, he worked on medical DNA research and experimenting with his quirk.

"Hospital," he answered. "Wait, don't you have a conference this afternoon?"

"Next week. Today I work from home." Mitsuremon worked for a support company and specialized in items for chemically-based quirks. She was often used as her company's representative since she was basically trilingual seeing as she grew up in a Spanish-speaking country, learned fundamental English, and moved to Japan for college.

"Yeah, didn't you see her hair?" Mai asked. When Mitsuremon was about to work on one of her items, she tied her sandy blonde hair back into a ponytail.

"What, her hair? Did she – oh, it's pulled back." Tadashi sighed in relief that he didn't miss a haircut. "See you tonight." He grabbed his drink and, with a final wave, ran off, nearly tripping down the stairs in his hurry out the door.

Mitsuremon rubbed her green eyes. "You know, if he's running late he should really just leave and not take the time to talk to us in the morning."

"What will you be working on today?" Mai asked as she swallowed down the last of her breakfast.

"Hopefully not fixing our clock," Ai joked and placed her dishes on the counter so she could finish putting her bag together. Although their mother was a great engineer, she was terrible at repairing things unless she put them together in the first place.

"I did not suffer through a c-section for this kind of derision," Mitsuremon responded. It was kind of funny to hear such a sassy reply in their mother's sweet and often soft-spoken voice.

Mai remembered how their problematic birth ensured the twins would be the only children that the Benihamas had. Mai was born first, and quite literally flew out of the womb, leaving the doctors to deal with a baby bat flopping on the floor until a minute later she transformed into a human baby (apparently this explained some things about the pregnancy). Meanwhile Ai was too energetic to let herself be born properly, preferring to spin around in the womb with her newfound space, so Ai had to be born via c-section. This took quite a toll on Mitsuramon's petite body which meant that was the end of the children.

Mai finished washing the dishes and grabbed her bag. "Are you ready to go, Ai?"

Ai's face lit up upon realizing Mai was going to walk to school with her. "Just about, I think I want one more blood pack for today."

"Here, I got it." Mitsuremon grabbed a syringe from the counter and extracted some blood from her arm. Ai's quirk worked better with their parent's blood since she and Mai were slightly anemic. It was a little disturbing how jaded the family was to extracting blood and having blood packs lying around (the former for Ai and the latter for Tadashi), but Mai supposed there were worse quirks to live with.

"Thanks." Ai tossed the vial of her mother's blood in her bag. "There are only so many times I can raid father's workroom for leftover blood packs."

"Well today's a big day," Mitsuremon said excitedly. "You two get to be part of the famous UA Sports Festival!"

"Eh, it's probably the UA Festival that least applies to us, but it's kind of cool I suppose." Mai shrugged. "Hurry up, Ai, I'm only walking with you so you don't use up your blood packs before the Sports Fest."

"Yep yep yep." Ai hopped up and the two hurried down the stairs.

"I know the Sports Festival is mostly for the hero students," Mitsuremon called to them as they reached the door. "But try to have fun today."

"Oh trust me, I plan to," Ai said with a mischievous grin. "I'm going to make those hero course kids work for it."

"Uh-huh," Mai nodded skeptically. It was a fun thought, but who knows if the first event would even be possible without hero training, especially considering all the physical aspects their department required. "Isn't this supposed to be a time for you and your classmates to show off the support items you made?"

"My items are still in the design stage." Ai shrugged. "Besides, I don't have enough time to mess around in the Department Studio." Mai knew this was because she spent all her time talking with her friends, but she didn't mention this. "I know it'd be helpful to land a good internship, but our mother's company already reached out to me."

"Ah, nepotism, where would you be without it?"

"Don't fall off the sidewalk," Ai snapped back before suddenly pushing Mai off the walkway. This led to a shout and a bit of chasing as Mai tried to get even.

"Don't make me run!" Mai exclaimed. "We need to save our energy for the Sports Fest!"

"Then don't try to push me back!" Ai called behind her with a laugh.

"You're such a brat."

"You started it."

"You started it when we were born."

"Then be the bigger sibling." Ai turned to jog backwards and pulled a blood pack from her bag. "I could do this all day." However, before she could consume it, she crashed into someone walking the opposite way. Mai figured this was adequate justice and, helping Ai to her feet after a good point-and-laugh, they made their way to UA High.

Homerooms were cut short with having the students change into their gym uniforms and ushering them to their designated holding area in the Sports Fest stadium. Mai swayed back and forth from her heels to the balls of her feet and back again waiting for the signal with all the other Management Department students in Classes 1-I, 1-J, and 1-K. There were some people complaining around her, some discussing logistics, and others planning how to network with the other departments' students. Wow was Mai surrounded by a bunch of nerds; this is why she hung out with Ai's classmates (that and she had never made friends without her sister). Finally the different departments were announced, and the first years strode into the increasingly rambunctious arena.

The Sports Festival Stadium was huge, with an expansive grassy area surrounding a central concrete square. In the middle of the square there was a 5-foot stage with stairs along the outside of it where the UA High teachers Midnight and Cementoss stood in their hero/teacher uniforms stood ready to arbitrate the event. In the front of the stage a simple microphone sat on a stand ready to dictate the festival.

"And starting off this year's Sports Fest is Class 1-A student and class representative, Meotooku Tomoaki!"

A black-haired and very put-together boy walked up the steps from the side of the stage and walked straight towards the microphone. He was holding his head up and seemed confident with all eyes on him, but then Mai noticed that his arms were shaking. As she paid closer attention she caught him barely trip on the stage and a shudder run through his body, something she recognized as the sheer terror of utter embarrassment as a fellow shy person who hated public speaking.

"Um," his voice probably hit five different pitches before settling. "Let's do our best and go plus -"

"ULTRA!" The stadium burst into another frenzy at the reciting of the school's motto. Meotooku wasted no time in getting off the stage and one look at his relieved face told Mai 'shy' was not a strong enough word to describe his feelings about public speaking, and, thinking about the quick and scripted nature of his speech, Mai's conclusion was cemented in her mind.

"If he wants to be a hero, he'll have to be way better at public speaking," She overheard one of the nearby Management students say.

Mai bit her lip; making a speech is incredibly more involved than publicly saving someone or making a brief statement, but she didn't expect a bunch of dorks to understand. "Maybe he's making a weak impression to surprise people during the events," she suggested.

"Interesting," the student nodded, ready to discuss any angle. "Then that would explain –"

"First years!" Midnight announced. "You will be fitted with three balloons on the back of your shoulders while we ready the stadium for the first event." A flood of volunteers poured into the arena and began attaching small yellow balloons to the students while Cementoss used his quirk to transform the concrete stage into a wall around the area's perimeter, locking the first years into an enclosed circle save for one exit Mai figured was intended for the volunteers. In the wall two stands jutted above the space, the larger one with an exit to the rest of the stadium, and the smaller one holding the teachers. As the students received their balloons they congregated towards the center, mixing around the classes.

"Hey, do I know you?" One of the students asked Mai, a boy with hair the same orange of fire and pale yellow skin that looked just off of normal at first glance.

"Eh, no?" Mai slowly shook her head. "Maybe my twin sister -"

"No, I feel like it was definitely you." He squinted a bit to remember. It was kind of awkward for Mai to crane her neck to meet his blue eyes. "That's it! You showed up at our class that one time!"

Oh no why remember that time? It was a day with a heavy downpour in the morning on one of the first weeks of the school year. Mai could fly to school as a bat no problem in the rain, but in the time it took her to transform and open the door her glasses became covered in water, and as she was half-blindly running to class she misread the Class 1-A sign as Class 1-K. She didn't know any of her actual classmates so when she didn't recognize the people around her she assumed she was just really bad at remembering faces. On top of that – what are the odds – it just so happened the person who usually sat in the desk she was in was absent that day until after she left. It took Mai until after the teacher, Mr. Aizawa, started class to realize she was in the wrong homeroom. Since she didn't want to disrupt class, she quietly transformed and as a bat crawled towards the door. Unfortunately, once she reached the front of the room Mr. Aizawa asked "Is there something I can help you with?" In a panic, Mai transformed back with a squeak and ran out of the classroom.

If that wasn't embarrassing enough, it wasn't the only time Mai ended up in the wrong classroom, but the second time wasn't really her fault. It was barely a week or so after the Class 1-A incident when Mai was running late (and Ai was even later) and in the frenzy of students trying not to be tardy someone in Class 1-G mistook her for Ai. He didn't hear her try to stop him as he dragged her to his classroom and by the time she was thrown into Ai's desk class started before she had a moment to explain and once again Mai found herself stuck sitting in the wrong class. Thankfully this time she had Ai, who ran into class a handful of minutes later apologizing all the way while everyone stared at her as if she were a ghost. When she finally noticed this, she stopped talking and turned toward her desk, eyes locking on Mai. Upon realizing what had happened she looked down and massaged her temple. "Oh Mai," she sighed. "You are – very bad at this."

Mai wondered how many of those students told the story to their friends and parents to make conversation, and just how many people now were spreading the legacy of Mai's awkwardness. Well, she supposed it was the only way she would be remembered so she might as well take what she can get.

"Alright, what's your strategy?" Ai suddenly grabbed Mai's shoulders from behind her.

"Uh, to not?" Mai responded.

"Ah, going defensive," Ai nodded. "I guess I could accept my place and allow myself to fail this event with grace and dignity."

Her face did not look like she would be accepting anything with grace or dignity. "But you're not going to do that."

"Oh heck no." Ai grinned and started tying her hair back. "Hey look, a camera." She pointed to where a camera was positioned to put all the first years' movements on the jumbo screen and a worldwide television station. "Hi future husband!" She said with an enthusiastic wave.

There were still a few students who needed balloons strapped to their backs, but the overall energy was starting to ramp up. "I really wish we could wear our hero costumes," Mai and Ai overheard one of the hero course students say to her friend. "I mean uniforms make sense, but still..."

"Yeah," Ai joked to Mai. "Wouldn't it be great if we could wear our course costumes to the Sports Fest? It'd be _sooo_ much cuter."

"Oh of course," Mai continued. "Nothing like having a Sports Festival in your professional suit." Ai laughed at the addition to her comment. "What are you even doing talking to me? Isn't this your time to network?"

"You're the business student, you should be the one networking." Ai shot back. "Besides, everyone here is busy preparing themselves for whatever we're supposed to do with these balloons." She gestured to where hers were attached to her back. "It'll be easier to talk with them if we're not competing in the event; first event's always the weed-out."

"Aren't you planning to go all the way?"

Ai half-shrugged, a malicious smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "My plan is to have fun, and if that leads to my elimination or it leads to my moving on then so be it." Mai was glad they weren't being directly put against each other with that excited look on her twin's face. "Don't you want to check out the other competitors with me? You know, to figure out who to avoid?"

"You mean so you can see who would be a fun target?" Mai side-eyed her sister.

"How dare you imply such a selfish intention!" Ai sputtered. "I just –"

"Ughhhhh this is such a waste of time." Okanate whined as she walked up to them. "I could make an essay-long list of things I could be doing in the time it takes them to start the first event." She put her head on Ai's shoulder. "Then I've got people complaining to me that they have to be here, others wanting my opinion on how to show off to support companies, and Shimoue won't shut up about 'the next generation of heroes.'"

"It's what you get for making yourself available to everyone as our class rep," Ai said, starting to braid Okanate's hair.

"Now I know why you turned down the position."

Mai pursed her lips, since she suspected Ai refused to be class rep to ensure Mai wouldn't fall into obscurity as the quiet sister of Class 1-G's representative.

"Hey, I like you as our class rep," Ai said. "You always smell like fresh tea."

"And I'm pretty sure you keep a market's worth of supplies in your bag," Mai contributed, remembering the multiple extra snacks, bandages, and pens she'd seen Okanate pull from her bag. "No equipment?" Mai added, noticing a lack of anything on top of Okanate's uniform (even Ai had a support belt to hold all her blood packs).

"No need," Okanate confirmed. "My little siblings aren't even going to watch the Sports Fest, otherwise I might actually try."

"Thank you for your patience," Midnight's voice broke through everything as it echoed across the stadium, reigning all the excitement onto her. "We will now announce the rules of the first event."

"Hey look, we're going to start this event while we're still young." Mai glanced over at Ai and Okanate to see if she got a decent reaction out of them, but suddenly felt self-conscious when she noticed a nearby first year laugh too.

"First, thank you to our volunteers." The stands cheered as the volunteers left and the cement wall became completely enclosed. "This first event will be a Battle Royale. Our students will go around popping one another's balloons while protecting their own." As she spoke, stairs grew from the wall leading down from the larger set of bleachers to just above where the first years could reach. "Once all three of your balloons have been popped we will be automatically notified and will provide you entrance to the student's stands. The last forty-eight students with at least one balloon intact will move on to the next round!"

"Forty-eight people then," Ai nodded. "That means about eight of us untrained students will move on as a bare minimum."

"But part of that group will probably include any General Studies students trying to transfer into the hero department," Okanate pointed out.

"Wait, there are still first years hoping to become heroes who aren't taking hero courses yet?" Mai asked. "Wow, that takes dedication; I would have given up on the dream at this point."

"You gave up on being a hero the moment you found out how many kids wanted it as their career," Ai countered.

"And what's wrong with being practical?" Mai defended herself. "I knew we couldn't all be heroes –"

"'And no sense working extra to earn such a difficult job,'" Ai recited, repeating Mai's words from middle school. "I totally agree you're much better in the Management Department, but honestly Mai, if it weren't for me –"

"Anyone who leaves this area will be immediately disqualified." Midnight finished. "We have Recovery Girl at the ready so don't hold back!" Midnight grinned in a way that made Mai uneasy. "Other than those things you are free to do whatever you want. Let the first event _BEGIN_!"


	3. Every Bat for Herself

"Wait – no!" Mai screamed and grabbed Ai as the rest of the first years broke into action.

"Here we go." Okanate used her Flexifingers quirk to rearrange the tip of her finger to be long and pointed, kind of like a pin, and, reaching behind her back, popped all three of her balloons.

"Wow would you look at that; we have our first elimination people!" Present Mic's voice announced across the stadium.

"Oh no I'm out of the Sports Fest," Okanate said apathetically and, with a good-natured wave at the twins, walked up to the students' stands.

"Alright let's get to safety." Ai grabbed Mai's wrist and dragged her towards the wall, dodging an autonomous arm, a burst of fire, and a whip-like dragon tail along the way. There were plenty of other students seeking refuge there hiding their backs via the wall, but there seemed to be a truce among them to not attack one another for the time being.

"This is it." Ai was grinning from ear to ear as she arranged her blood packs so they'd be ready to drain in an instant.

"Are you sure you even need that?" Mai asked. "I think you have enough energy right now as it is."

"But I could get _more _energy," Ai laughed. "And then I'll be _twice _as unstoppable."

"Thaaat's probably not a good thing."

"Oh pish-posh it's entertaining." With the look in Ai's ruby eyes, Mai wouldn't be surprised if she started running up and down walls after a good bit of blood.

Mai looked out at the mayhem of students. "Like we need more of that."

"Come on, I'm not going to wreak havoc now." Ai rolled her eyes. "Where's the fun in that? No, we're going to wait until the optimal moment."

Well, that actually made sense. Assuming Ai had a finite amount of chaos she could cause (even though Mai sometimes doubted it was the case), it would be better to wait until a singular person could be more than a drop in the bucket. Ai wanted to optimize the ratio of chaos she could cause to the chaos the group as a whole was causing, though there was another variable Mai didn't know if Ai had included in her plan.

"But uh, Ai, you do remember we have minimal chance against the trained students, right? I mean, we don't even know their quirks."

"I'm not holding out until the last minute, Mai." Ai kept glancing around the field and up at the students' stands. "Just until the hopeless ones have been taken out, which is probably about half of us. If you and I are having trouble staying out of the fray before then I'll make my move when two-thirds of us are still in the running. Remember, we made a pact to watch each other's backs."

"Wha – when did we agree to that?"

"When we were born, probably." Ai shrugged it off, still grinning. "Don't worry, once I get in the fight you can do whatever you want."

At this point they were the only ones left on the wall. Most of the others had decided on a strategy and joined the action and the rest were easy targets who had at this point been eliminated. It seemed even having the twins appear prepared kept anyone looking for easy pickings away from them.

"Anything you can think of to stay safe for the time being?" Ai asked.

"You mean you didn't think this through?" Mai demanded. Well, Ai did put quite a bit of strategy into an event neither of them were invested in, but she was still treating it much more flippantly than Mai ever would. Mai groaned and accepted her sister's plan. "Ughhhh fine. We don't know what the other students can do, but they don't know our quirks either. As long as we act confident and look like we're executing a strategy we might avoid some trouble."

In another minute the initial round of eliminations had tampered off and the competitors started being smarter in their plans. One guy with electricity buzzing from his fingers considered approaching them, but after Ai loudly confirmed Recovery Girl could regrow kneecaps and wildly threatened to take a bite out of him while swinging her belt around and displaying a blood pack, he thought better of it. There was another girl controlling some red vines who came close to them, but when someone else popped one of her balloons she ended up chasing that person instead.

"Alrighty." Ai stretched out her back. "I think the current chaos is pretty segmented." She pulled out her first blood pack and considered it a moment before drinking it all, deliberately spilling it all over her mouth and torso. She then unpinned her hair and ran her bloody fingers through it, leaving streaks of crimson as if they were highlights in her pale blonde hair. Watching her, Mai couldn't help but chuckle. It was funny to think back when quirks weren't the norm, their ancestors probably struggled with the macabre aspect of their blood-related quirks, especially having to consume human blood to activate their power. If they could see their descendant now, Mai wasn't sure if they'd be proud of how the times had changed or embarrassed at how casually Ai treated her quirk.

"Let's do this!" Ai exclaimed and started sprinting towards the heart of the action, the blood in her hair causing it to look like a fierce war banner.

"It looks like another competitor has entered the fray!" Present Mic announced.

Mai just shrugged and decided to watch the show.

The first run just broke up a lot of battles, but on the second run Ai ran in circles screaming like a pterodactyl and waving her arms, shoving and punching whoever happened to be in her way (which she made sure was just about everyone). Even with her vocal alert, there were still a handful of students taken off-guard who ended up having one or two of their balloons popped by her. Soon the smart ones used those moments to eliminate people distracted by Ai, though, this would not bode well for them, as she would then go after the eliminator. Draining another blood pack, she somehow managed to dodge and outrun all attacks, still running like a chicken without its head and screaming louder than a banshee.

Several minutes into Ai's debut, students with speed-based quirks focused their efforts into eliminating her. One managed to pop her first balloon when she paused for another blood pack, but in true Ai form she just looked at him, said "okay", and plowed him over in her second (or maybe third) wind. Her flailing arms were getting more dangerous every drop of blood she consumed, now knocking people over and into one another so nobody could execute any sort of strategy.

Just as Mai was becoming engrossed into it all, she suddenly heard a loud laugh behind her and the unmistakable balloon pop on her back. "Meep!" She transformed and frantically flew away, seeking refuge under the student section of the concrete arena.

There was a nice grip in the students' stands that she could cling to and just wait out the rest of the event as a bat. Mai curled up under her wings in a tight cocoon and sighed in relief knowing it would be smooth sailing from here on out, she just had to watch the rest of the Sport Fest with Ai - unless her sister was in the next event, which would also be cool. Mai tried to use her echolocation to see if Ai was still in the running, but all she could decipher was a bunch of figures moving around. Some were moving fast enough to possibly be Ai, however, there was no way to know for certain in Mai's bat form.

Well, with no way of observing the event and with nobody observing her, Mai at least could get some rest. She probably couldn't sleep while using her quirk, but as long as she focused on keeping it activated while using the mass of noises around her as a white noise lullaby she could at least let the rest of her body have a break. Ah, time to herself, this was so nice…

"And we have our final forty-eight contenders!" Present Mic's voice seemed even louder as it broke through Mai's rest. Caught off-guard, her quirk deactivated and she started falling from the underside of the student's stands.

"No no no no no bat bat bat!" She managed to transform just in time to flap away from the ground and return to her human form for a safe landing. She knew transform quirks were usually only able to be activated for a short amount of time, but Mai had grown up escaping into her bat form so many times she had gotten used to activating it without getting tired, though she sometimes forgot there were limits to Bat Transform.

"And the students moving on to the second round will be," Present Mic continued announcing. "Asamu, Benihama, Chikawa…"

Benihama? That meant Ai must have held out! Mai hurried to where the remaining students were standing.

"Ai! You're in the second event! That's –"

"Mai?" Ai's voice called down from the wall.

Mai froze in her tracks, looked up at where Ai was leaning over the side of the eliminated students' stands, glanced at her back where two round and very intact balloons sat, and stopped. "Oh poop."

* * *

"Students, please exit the stands from the first event," Midnight announced as Cementoss transformed the portion of the wall with their judge's stands back into a stage. Most of the students went out the provided back exit straight into the stadium, but some when down the stairs to congratulate their friends.

"Hey!" Mai was suddenly turned around to face a boy with a reptilian face. "So you're the one who kept me from passing this round at the last minute!" Mai didn't say anything and instead focused on the way his forked tongue moved as he talked. "If weren't hiding _I'd_ be the forty-eighth person – I was keeping track the whole time so if _you_ –"

"Oh sure, blame the bat, why not, they're easy targets." Ai swept in just in time to save Mai. "Last I checked it wasn't cheating to hide."

"You don't understand, I –"

"Hey, it's okay Shouka," a boy with weirdly pink skin intercepted him, letting Mai escape. "There's so much more –"

"Mai! I can't believe you're in the second round!" Ai was jumping up and down with excitement.

"That makes two of us," Mai responded. "You know, we could just switch –"

"Absolutely not." Ai cut her off. "You earned that spot and I know you can do it again!"

"And that makes one of us."

"Now you just stop it with your negativity, you know it's not going to help you." Ai removed Mai's remaining balloons from her back and headed back towards the stadium. "I'll be cheering for you, might even make some money with some bets."

"Oh no, Ai please –"

But with a playful wave, Ai was gone.

"Remaining first years, you may now remove the balloons if you haven't already." Now the cement wall had completely been reverted back into the original concrete stage. "Everyone else please go to your class seats to observe the rest of the Sports Festival."

Mai looked around at the students she'd be competing against as the volunteers collected their leftover balloons and escorted the eliminated students out of the arena. It was futile to hope Mai knew anyone here, but as luck would have it she recognized Ai's classmate Shimoue and shuffled towards him.

"Our next event will be a game of Capture the Flag. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is traditionally two sides, each with a flag, attempting to bring the other's flag to their side of the land without being caught. To make things more interesting, we will randomly assign you all to one of six teams with the eight members of the winning team moving on to our final round!"

"Wow." Shimoue's eyes were sparkling in excitement. "A team of eight elite future heroes. I hope I can try my hand against them in action!"

"Each team is represented by a color, which will be denoted on their flag and each player's given headband. If a student is in another team's territory, their headband is susceptible to being broken off by the defending team and that player must retrieve a new headband from his or her flag. The area designated for each team will be marked along the grass while this middle area is free for anyone to utilize safely."

"How did you manage to pass the first event?" Mai asked Shimoue.

"I can change my size proportionally, so I could shrink and hide _and_ grow to defend myself," he said, still grinning happily. "It's been fun seeing how they strategize around my quirk. I wonder if any of them would want me to make some suppor–"

"You will have twenty minutes to complete this event. At the end of the given time the teams will receive points for each flag on their territory, twenty for their own flag and ten for every flag secured from another team." Midnight finished explaining. "We will now distribute the headbands and prepare the area for the second event. While our volunteers set up, I will call your name and you may come up and retrieve the headband Cementoss will pull from this box." She held up the special UA box with a singular hole in the top for Cementoss' hand, meanwhile, some new volunteers came in and somehow, using their quirks, started growing an array of bushes and trees in the grassy area. Since all the students were standing in the flat concrete square, the volunteers were able to establish a faux-forest much more efficiently than the setup for the first event.

"Asamu!"

As the forest grew, some other volunteers began laying out color-coded dividers for each team, stopping just at the center square.

"Benihama!"

The dividers were slightly off-center from the middle area, but Mai figured they had already calculated the fair amount of square area for each team.

"Benihama?"

Shimoue elbowed Mai and she suddenly realized they were calling her. Growing alongside Ai in school she had begun assuming people were looking for Ai when using their last name, and apparently it was to the point where she ignored someone calling by her surname. Mai scurried up the stage and was handed an orange headband before hurrying back to where she and Shimoue were standing.

As more and more people received their headbands and teams, Mai kept tabs on anyone else with an orange headband to see if they were supposed to congregate somewhere to discuss strategy. There was a purple-haired girl just standing around, seemingly waiting for the same thing, a girl with deep red hair and eyes surveying the growing forest from the concrete, and later a blond kind-faced boy standing with who were probably his classmates. The Class 1-A rep who made the opening speech was the first of their team to talk to someone else with an orange headband, but he seemed to know the blond boy outside of the Sports Fest. Not long after that the boy with the weird pink skin Mai saw after the first event received an orange headband and walked straight towards her.

"Hey, I just wanted to apologize for my classmate's behavior earlier," he said before Mai could make a sound. "Shouka's a talented guy, but he has trouble when his plans don't work out and he was hoping to use the Sports Fest as his ticket into the hero course."

"Oh, are you in Class 1-C?" Shimoue asked, eavesdropping.

"Yep, I'm the class rep, and unlike Shouka I'm perfectly happy there."

"Um, could you tell me –"

"Why I'm sticking to General Studies?" The boy finished Mai's attempt of a personal question. "Mostly because we're still fifteen and I have no idea what I want to do for over twice as long as I've been alive. Personally, I find it weird there's really only one department that leaves our career options wide open."

"I – I just wanted you to tell me your name."

"Oh." The boy's skin tone flushed to a darker shade of pink. "I'm Motomizu."

Motomizu, the one with the pink skin and noticeably normal brown hair and eyes. Mai could remember that; the real challenge would be remembering all seven of Mai's new teammates at once.

Motomizu's eyes looked on something and his already dark pink face became closer to a red hue. "Is – is Chikawa on our team?" And almost in a daze, he walked towards the girl still evaluating her surroundings.

It didn't take much longer for all eight of the orange headbands to be distributed and while the teachers continued administering the headbands to the remaining students someone gestured for the orange team to gather.

"Alright Niseyoko!" Motomizu greeted a girl with short black hair and identically black skin. "Class 1-C represent!"

The only spot of color on Niseyoko was her luminescent green eyes. Okay, Niseyoko, who has green eyes, green means go so go ahead and don't mention that she looks like a shadow. Ugh, Mai was never going to remember these people.

"And you're Class 1-C's rep, right?" The Class 1-A representative said, pointing to Motomizu, who nodded. "So then we have me and my deputy class rep, not to mention our classmate Nakatsuka, all Class 1-A –"

"Asami and I are both Class 1-B, and I'm the class rep, Komura," the blond boy said. "I know you're Meotooku," he said to the Class 1-A rep, "and your deputy would then be – "

"Chiwaka," Motomizu finished quietly, constantly glancing at the girl with dark red hair.

Mai just blinked and hoped she wasn't expected to figure out and remember all the names everyone was throwing around.

"Oh right, and you," the Class 1-A rep with combed black hair, Meotooku, said, bringing the attention to Mai. "I think I've seen you before, are you in the hero department?"

"I'm –"

"I've never seen her before, she must be in Class 1-A."

"That can't be right – if she were in Class 1-A, I should know her as her class rep." Meotooku lost all the confidence he seemed to have gained from being in the small group to now look as worried as he seemed when he made his speech. "Why can't I remember her?"

Mai could tell Meotooku was getting frustrated at himself for not remembering a random business student who he recognized from fleeing his classroom months ago, but with all the attention on her she was having trouble settling on the right words. "Marketing – K – business, me – Maihama." Mai could hear Ai's hysterical laughter in her head and cleared her throat.

"I'm a business student from the Management Department; Benihama Mai from Class 1-K."


	4. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Once all of the teams had been established the remaining first years were given five minutes to enter their segregated territories and locate their flags.

"Do you think there are any of those robots in here?"

"What, robots?"

"You know, from the practical entrance exam."

"I don't remember any robots in the practical."

"It was probably just in the hero course practical," the shadow girl, Niseyoko, said. Her voice sounded so dreamy and faraway, even though Mai was standing next to her. Niseyoko turned her green eyes to the blond boy. "But you're in the hero course, so you should have remembered them, Komura."

Of course everyone else already memorized their teammates' names. Okay, so there was shadow – Niseyoko, the general studies pink boy – Motomizu, the anxious hero rep – Meotooku, and literally everyone is in 1-A, 1-B, or 1-C, leaving Management Mai as the odd one out. Fantastic.

"Oh, well –" the blond boy, Komura, said, the pink rising at the center of his cheeks providing a contrast with his cobalt eyes. "I – uh, I got in on recommendation, so I took a different exam."

Komura – reKommendation, Mai could probably remember that (key word being 'probably').

"You got in on recommendation?" Meotooku asked. "That's amazing! Then are your parents pro-heroes? And – wait, shouldn't you be in our class?"

"I specifically asked to be added to class 1-B." Judging by how Komura's eyes were measuring the grass, he probably requested that to avoid the attention Meotooku was giving him now.

"My parents are heroes too – well, my mother is retired, but my father is the wave hero, maybe our parents know each other."

"Heh, only if they arrested my father." Komura sighed, deciding to delve into his family situation. "My mother became pregnant at a – bad time in her life. She told me my father hired her to help with some sort of PTSD and that he had trouble living with society or something. But after she had me she turned her plight around and gave me a good life; I've been doing all I can to return the favor, and my hard work made it so I could be admitted to UA on recommendation."

Wow, Komura had such a powerful motivation in the Sports Fest. "Meanwhile I wasn't even supposed to pass the first event."

"Nobody could accidentally pass the first event; I'm sure you're very strong." It took Mai a moment to realize the crimson-colored girl was talking to her since she didn't notice she had said her comment out loud. "And even so, our team is loaded with class officers, which should make up for anything else."

"I just wish we had my deputy too," recommendation kid, Komura, said. "She can be a force to fight against."

Oh, so even with a liability like Mai, their team would be fine, that was kind of comforting - maybe.

"Anyway, what's your power? I wasn't able to take notes on you during the first event." The crimson girl had a pretty voice, but her rough way of speaking didn't compliment it at all.

"Oh, um – I can transform into a bat."

"Huh, that must be why I always see a bat near UA at the start and end of classes. It's you using your quirk to fly to and from school, isn't it?"

Before Mai could nod, the class 1-A rep guy, Meotooku, interrupted. "No, it's illegal to use a quirk in public without a hero license."

"It's one of my friends," Mai said in a panic. She always thought the law prohibited using a quirk against someone, not just activating it in public. Her parents generally had the attitude that rules exist for a reason, but if you understand the reason and adhere to that, it was okay to break the letter of the law, so Mai had no idea if, when she and Ai went to school, their parents were ignorant of the law or chose to ignore it. She supposed it was also possible Meotooku was mistaken.

"So you can speak to other bats using your quirk? That bat friend of yours must be really unique, not being nocturnal and all."

"Yeeeeeeeessss," Mai nodded slowly, despite the fact that even in her bat form she could only understand Japanese and her panicked response was a 100% lie. At least she didn't blurt an even worse explanation, like having a hero license.

"We should have two groups of three to each secure another team's flag and one group of two to protect our own," Meotooku said once they reached their bright orange flag and corresponding spare team headbands under it. The hero course students then discussed the best strategy for dividing the team. All Mai knew was by the time Midnight announced the beginning of the event she was assigned with Komura and Niseyoko to steal the red team's flag. Niseyoko took the lead and truly seemed to become a shadow leading Mai and Komura through the faux forest directly towards red territory while Komura explained the general plan.

"Niseyoko and I are going to distract any guards and then you're going to steal their flag and bring it to our territory in your bat form, assuming you can move faster that way."

"We may need to observe them before we attack to make my skills most useful," Niseyoko whispered softly as they crossed into the red area. "My quirk, Mimic, can replicate anyone's voice and vocal mannerisms, but I need to watch them a little first."

"Just let me know when you want me to activate my quirk," Komura nodded. "With Clone I can make up to ten identical quirkless clones of myself that think and act the way I would until they vanish after ten minutes."

Niseyoko continued to guide their group around enemy land like a cat on a hunt until they were able to see a red flag and huddle in the brush to see the situation. There were two students with red headbands flanking the flag, one girl and one boy. The girl had grayish skin with darker gray eyes contrasted with short pale pink hair. She seemed to be doing some aerobic conditioning around a nearby bush.

"Of course we're going against my deputy," Komura muttered almost inaudibly.

The boy was that guy from class 1-A with flame-like orange hair and yellowish skin who recognized Mai before the first event from her classroom incident. He seemed much more guard-like than the girl with his constant glancing about and tense ready position.

"Shouldn't you be focusing on potential attacks?" He asked his teammate.

"The more I sweat, the more pepper I produce," she retorted. "Which will be quite valuable with your Fire Sneeze quirk."

"Are you sure you'll be okay working alongside my fire?"

"Of course; I used to play with my little cousin who can literally make explosions – I'll be fine." She stared directly at him with a flirtatious look in her eye. "Awwww are you worried about me? You're such a chivalrous guy, Rakutake." She enticingly bit her lip, still doing her exercise.

The blush on the fire boy's cheeks looked even more awkward on his yellowy skin. "Well, I –"

"You're even cuter when you're flustered."

"He's making every rookie mistake with Oyo-bushio," Komura shook his head softly. Turning towards Mai, he gestured with his head at a tree with several branches hanging directly above the red flag. With a nod, Mai transformed and carefully made her way to a branch only a foot above the fire sneeze boy. Using the pepper class 1-B deputy's laugh as a cover, Mai dared to use her echolocation. Alright, the red team members hadn't moved much and the flag was only a few flaps away from where Mai could easily grab it; as long as the boy didn't jump she would be safe. Komura was still hiding where Mai left him, and it seemed at some point Niseyoko had slunk her way to hide in the bushes directly facing Komura on the other side of the flag.

As Mai waited, listening for her opportunity, there was a rustle deeper in the forest and the sound of several twigs breaking under the foot of a small handful of people. Those must be Komura's clones in action.

"Let's go – who wants a face full of pepper!" Sounded like the girl took the bait as a scuffle moved towards the clones and away from the flag.

"Komura – you think you –" her shout was cut off and was soon followed by a chorus of coughing.

"Rakutake! I could use some of your sneezes now!"

And that must be Niseyoko using Mimic. After another echolocation check confirmed the two figures were overwhelmed by five other people at the edge of Mai's range, it was her turn.

As Mai left the branch she felt a gust of heat from presumably the fire guy's quirk, causing her to realize she was in the middle of a fight. And fights are where people get hurt. And getting hurt is painful. When did Mai become the crazy person who put herself in potentially painful situations? What was she even doing? A business student did _not_ belong in a fight; that was just a terrible idea in general. Bad idea bad idea bad idea –

Mai felt her claws subconsciously grab the flag, as if to tell her there was no going back. Okay, so this is happening. Just do what Ai would do.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-A!" Mai had no idea how loud her squeak sounded to anyone else as she flew towards orange territory, red flag billowing in her claws. As long as she could pass the half-red-half-orange tape roped across the dividing trees she'd have done her part. With her focus on carrying the flag she couldn't maintain her echolocation, she just hoped that she'd drop it off where her team could secure the red flag. There were definitely people chasing her now. Maybe Mai was lucky and they were just her teammates backing her up.

Just as the words finished forming in Mai's head she felt a sudden heat on one of her wings, then, just before she could register that she had been burned, she felt a sharp shock throughout her whole body, and everything went black.

* * *

"Well you got me. By all accounts, it doesn't make any sense."

Light slowly reached into Mai's eyes and as she blinked into consciousness the lights became blurred shapes and colors.

"Glasses are in your hand," the words formulated through the haze. Mai's fingers twitched and registered the glasses in her hand before slowly putting them on her face. The blurs solidified into a room with UA's rectangular light fixtures and curtains reaching to the ceiling. Was this – the nurse's office? Mai managed to sit up and test out her body. Didn't feel like anything was broken, only a lot of stiffness everywhere and a fading soreness on her left arm, just enough to make daily life doable but annoying.

"How are you feeling, Miss Benihama Mai?" Recovery Girl's wise face leaned over the bed Mai was lying in and examined her arm.

"Oof – that's still sore." Biting her lip, she dared to look at her arm for the remains of the burn she received in her bat form before she blacked out. A soft pink patch of skin went from her elbow to halfway up her forearm with only a few centimeters in the middle looking like a burn, but at this point it looked pretty mild, like one she might get from cooking. "I'm mostly stiff, everywhere."

"So she's okay now?" Ai's voice asked.

"I believe she's almost at one hundred percent," Recovery Girl nodded.

Before Mai could look around the room, Ai had leapt onto her bed and was clinging to her neck. "Oh Maaaaaaaai that was so scary! What did the mean hero students do to you?"

"She sustained a burn on her left wing while her quirk was activated, then received an electric shock which caused her bat form to lose consciousness and when that happened her quirk deactivated and she was left passed out on the ground." Someone in the room gasped and Mai craned around Ai's head to at least make out that she had a crowd of visitors. "It looks like the burn on her wing then stretched onto her arm when she transformed back into her human form, which my quirk and some rest helped heal. Her body may be recovering, but it's still a lot for it to experience; I may request they push the third event as far back as possible to let her rest a bit longer."

"That's really not necessary for just one student –"

"Of course it's necessary," Ai interrupted Mai. "You're in the third event!"

Mai blinked twice. "Wait, what?"

"Yep, you were able to get the flag within inches of our territory and I was able to secure it from there," Komura said, stepping next to Mai's bed. "The one-on-one battles will be decided by lot after lunch. I don't want to disrupt your rest, but seriously, let me know if there's anything I can get for you. You really helped us get into the third round." With a kind smile he made the nurse's office slightly less crowded.

"Alright, Mai, which of these people am I allowed to murder?" Ai said, scooting so Mai could see all her visitors. Standing around with various amounts of worry and eye contact were a handful of people from the orange team, a few people Mai recognized from the preparation of the second event, and Ai's friend Okanate leaning against the wall.

"Ai –"

"I'm just kidding; I've actually been quite reasonable."

"Yes, because clawing your way to the Recovery Girl's office and trampling everyone inside to get to the patient is _very_ reasonable."

"Stand down, Okanate."

"Um," a short mass of silver hair stepped forward. "I think it was my Taser that knocked you out." Mai couldn't tell which emotion was stronger on the boy's stormy-blue tinted face, concern or confusion. "But, I never would have believed it; my quirk isn't that powerful."

"Well obviously it is." Ai scowled.

"Anyway, I'm Hiramehashi, from Class 1-D."

"Impossible," Ai scoffed. "Only a hero could take out my baby sister…who happens to be my twin...and was born first." Mai tried not to laugh.

"Well, I am hoping to go into the police force." He shook his head. "But I am so sorry, I really didn't want to hurt you –"

"So, like, with your Taser would you need to train your quirk to make it more shock-y or use a support item?"

"Oh, uh," he looked down at his hands. Pointing with two of his fingers on each hand, he scraped them against each other, as if sharpening blades, and they buzzed with electricity. "I guess – I don't know."

"If you ever want to experiment with it, let me know." Ai grinned as if she hadn't been threatening to murder him moments ago. "You have an incredibly cool quirk, and even without it I'm sure you'll make a great police officer."

"Really?" His face softened into a relaxed smile, all the previous frustration with himself now purged from his face.

"Absolutely! You did manage to take down my sister."

"To be fair, so could a determined duck." Mai inputted. "But I truly appreciate your concern, even with the event being 'anything goes'. Trust me, I'm fine, no need to worry about it."

"I'm just glad you're okay," he said as he headed out. "I'll be rooting for you." He called behind him.

"Good luck with that," Mai murmured, only to receive an elbow to the stomach. "Ow! Come on, Ai, I'm an invalid!"

"Even cripples aren't allowed to be so negative."

"At any rate," Okanate went up next to Mai's bed. "I'll be going to lunch now, and I'll see if I can secure you some food." She squeezed Mai's shoulder affectionately. "Finish healing soon, I'm looking forward to the battle." She followed the taser boy out.

"Well, if you're alright Benihama, I can leave you to rest." Meotooku – class 1-A speech guy – also made to leave. "Thanks a lot for your contribution to our win; good luck in the final event."

"Even a student from the Management Department can go plus ultra," Motomizu – pink 1-C dude – added before also leaving.

"Don't worry about me, I'm okay." Mai watched the door close behind them and flopped back on the bed. "I am not okay."

"Ugh, I knew it."

Mai nearly jumped since she thought it was just her and Ai in the room with Recovery Girl, but actually looking around the room showed the boy with the Fire Sneeze quirk and Niseyoko were still visiting. He was standing with the most discouragingly hopeless face Mai had ever seen on a human being as he looked to the ground, meanwhile Niseyoko sat poised as a cat, politely sitting in a chair as she stared out the window expressionless.

"If either of you want to make yourselves useful, could you let the teachers know I surrender?" Mai asked, hoping to lighten the mood. "I don't need everyone to waste their time watching my butt get a thorough kicking." This earned her another elbow to the stomach.

"I'm so sorry, this is all my fault; I can't believe I let myself use my fire against you. I – I could never apologize enough for hurting you and jeopardizing your performance in the last event. I can't imagine what my parents thought watching the Sports Fest."

"Wouldn't they be proud you at least made it to the second event?" Ai asked.

"You don't understand; they're rescue heroes with water quirks. All I've ever wanted since they adopted me is to be just like them." He put his head in his hands. "And all I've done as a hero is hurt people. How can they call me their son when I could never be like them." He added almost inaudibly.

Mai pursed her lips; the situation had just grown to be way beyond her comfort zone. She glanced at Ai, but even she seemed to still be processing it all.

"I think that sounds just like your parents," Niseyoko said, still looking out the window. "Using your fire against Mai, that is." The fire boy lifted his head just enough to look at her though one eye. "Even though Hiramehashi took himself out of the event to get Mai to Recovery Girl, you stood your ground for your team." Her green eyes turned to bore into him. "Fighting until the end after incapacitating your opponent with a nonlethal blow, isn't that the essence of a hero, Rakutake?"

Fire boy – uh, Rakutake, if Mai was going to attempt the name thing – lost all the despair that had smothered his face as he blinked at Niseyoko, a trace of hope now entering it. "I – I guess –" He was cut off by his phone ringing. "Excuse me. Hi, father, I'm just about to –" As he left Recovery Girl's office he barely avoided Motomizu who barreled into the room.

"Niseyoko! I just realized I might have to fight Chikawa in the third event!" He exclaimed, ignoring the fact that this was an occupied nurse's office. "You know how important this is to her, what should I do? Should I give a decent fight or just toss the battle so she knows I'm trying to help her?"

Niseyoko tilted her head, looking even more like a curious black kitten. "Why would you throw your fight?"

Motomizu hesitated in the doorway. "You're right, she wouldn't want an unfair fight even if it improved her chances, which means I… " He continued muttering to himself as he ambled down the hallway.

Mai leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, processing what all went down. "When did my recovery turn into solve-everyone's-emotional-problems time?"

"Yeah, and not one of them was me." Ai laid down on the Mai's bed, curling up next to her side. "Watching my beloved sister get attacked and knocked unconscious is emotionally traumatizing stuff you know."

"Alright, time for my patient to get more rest." Recovery Girl prodded Ai away from Mai's side while Ai booed.

"It's okay, I can sleep in whatever conditions." Ai cheered as Mai let her cuddle closer as she laid down. "Please wake me before the third event starts."

"I'll get the recreational games to last as long as possible," Recovery Girl responded.

"Oh, did you want some encouragement too?" Niseyoko said as she stood out of the chair she had been observing from this whole time. "No matter what your odds are in the third event as a business student, you have already made UA Sports Festival history." She briefly waved as she went out the door. "At any rate, good luck."

* * *

**Author's Note: Alright, we're almost halfway through this little fic! Have you enjoyed it thus far? Are you excited for the third event? Let me know your thoughts, and leave a comment!**


	5. A Series of Unexpected Events

Mai woke in Recovery Girl's office to Ai mumbling half-asleep in her ear. "And this is Mai, my flying sister."

"Ai, what are you on about?"

Ai lifted her head, her eyelids fluttering half-open. "The kind man just introduced us to his flying friend."

"_Family_ friend, Benihama, my family friend."

Mai managed to move her twin off her enough to sit upright and see Komura visiting the nurse's office with another girl while Recovery Girl worked at her desk. The girl with Komura was rather cute with wavy black hair and a rounded figure, and she was on the short side judging by how long the UA uniform skirt looked on her. Since she was wearing the UA school uniform, but not the one for gym currently being worn by all the first years, she was probably an upperclassman, but it didn't explain why she was here.

"Erm – we just woke up, uh, what were you saying?" Mai said, shaking Ai fully awake.

"Is – is she asleep? Then, how were we just talking with her?"

"She happens to be very good at talking," Mai said quietly as she stretched herself awake. "But um, why exactly are you here?"

"Right," Komura hurriedly pulled something out of his pocket. "Since you don't know anyone in the third event, I wanted to help you out a little." He handed it to Mai, which was an empty bracket with the first round's pairings written out. Underneath each name was their class and a brief description of their quirk.

"We both asked around to get the information as best as we could," the girl said. "I'm from Class 3-E, a quirkless General Studies student, and seeing someone from the Management Department make it to the third event has finally made the Sports Fest fun for me. Thank you for that," she added with a bow. "I'm happy to provide any support to you."

"Wow, this is so valuable!" Ai said, looking at the bracket.

"Mm-hm," Mai nodded. "But it's not like I'm the only untrained competitor; what about the Class 1-C people?"

"They've had the opportunity to talk with the other orange team members while you were unconscious," Komura said. "Besides, they at least have someone from their class. You have nobody." His friend smacked him upside the head.

"Well, now I know the Clone quirk doesn't include any element of tact, shall I write it with the rest of my third event data?" Mai joked to Ai.

"Oooh, burrrrn!"

"Sorry," he said, rubbing his head. "Anyway, your match will be the last of the round. The first battle should be starting soon, if you want you can watch with us in Class 1-B's stands."

"Absolutely not!" Ai sat up on her knees indignantly. "I may not be in the third event with her but she still has me in her corner. Let's go watch the third event, Mai." She grabbed her hand and began marching out the door.

"Hold up," Mai stopped her. "Did you need me for anything else, Recovery Girl?"

"The extra rest should complete the rest of your recovery," Recovery Girl said, leaning back in her desk chair to look at Mai. "I pushed back your next fight as long as possible, but if you're feeling up to it I have no reason to keep you from returning to the Sports Fest."

Now that she thought about it, Mai realized her body didn't feel stiff or sore anymore. In fact, she felt more ready for the Sports Fest than ever (which wasn't saying much, seeing as she was barely more than dreading it before) and at this point maybe she could luck her way out of dying in a fight.

"You're my number one hero, Recovery Girl," Ai grinned and dragged Mai out into the hallway, only to crash into someone else.

"Oh, Benihama, are you free to watch the third event with us now? We can help you prepare for your battle."

The twins had run into two students Mai recognized as being in Class 1-K with her. Since she tended to focus on her own studies during class, she didn't know the names of any of her classmates, but she did know a few details on each of them from her observations. The one they had run into was her class rep; a natural leader whose head happened to be a round lightbulb which would sometimes glow when he was using a lot of energy, physical or mental. He sat in the exact middle of the classroom, right in front of Mai, and he sometimes ended up lighting her desk more during exams, which was totally worth sitting behind what was literally the largest head in the class. The other person was their class's top student, a hard-working girl with brown velvet animal ears on top of her head and a correlating fuzzy tail. She often offered to have study groups with others and apparently would practice swordsmanship while discussing material, saying it helped her truly learn the material.

"Woah, that guy's face is a lightbulb," Ai murmured in Mai's ear.

"Yeah, Ai, meet some of my classmates." Mai avoided revealing she didn't remember their names. "And nice job restraining yourself to a whisper."

"I know right, I'm so proud of me." Ai laughed.

"You know I could still hear you, right?" Mai's classmate interrupted.

"I am less proud of me," Ai said. "Well, since I've already ruined my reputation, can I touch your ears?"

The girl was taken aback as though nobody had ever been so upfront with her. "Oh, absolutely; I actually don't mind it once someone asks." She bent her knees and leaned forward a bit so Ai could reach the top of her head.

"Wow, so soft! Do you know if they're supposed to be from a specific animal?"

"A raccoon, I believe."

Mai gave in and reached out to touch her classmate's ears too. They were really soft, not as velvety as a cat's or a rodent's, but still soothing to pet.

"Alright, you can go ahead and feel my tail, too."

"Yay!"

Her tail's fur was even more dense and warm, it was the kind of thing Mai thought would be great to curl up next to at a sleepover. She wondered how her classmate might listen to music, since a normal earbud would go too deep into the ear, and if she had to get holes put in her hats so she could still hear, or if hearing through a hat wasn't a problem. She wanted to ask, but as she opened her mouth her throat constricted and nothing came out. Mai watched Ai move on to her class rep and ask him about the logistics of his head and suddenly wished she could be bolder, like her twin.

"Hey Benihama, we should hurry; you'll want to watch as many fights in the final event as possible."

"Oh, I was going to –" Mai looked at Ai since she thought they'd watch together with Class 1-G since it wasn't like she really knew anyone in her own class.

"Well, I'll probably visit you in the waiting room at some point. Have fun with your class, Mai!" Ai was no help as she abandoned Mai with a cheerful wave and took off down the hallway.

Mai went back with her classmates to the Class 1-K stands just before the first battle started. She looked down at the bracket Komura had given her; first up was Meotooku and Chikawa. Okay, Meotooku she knew from the opening speech, and she at least remembered Chikawa's name from that Motomizu guy (who clearly had an incurable crush on her). As she started reading their quirk names, Present Mic announced them into the ring.

"First up we have someone who's bound to make a wave with his heartbeat of atmospheric pressure. It's Class 1-A's representative, Meotooku Tomoaki! And in this corner; her heart is always on her sleeve, as are her veins, which she can literally use to kill you, Chikawa Hiromi, the deputy representative also from Class 1-A! It's a battle of partners, a true test of strength, this is the third event!" The stands erupted in cheers as Meotooku and the girl with the red hair and soft voice, despite her rough way of talking, entered the cement square in the middle of the staduim. "Now remember folks, the challengers must either force the other out of the ring or wrap two or more of their limbs with their given capture tape."

"Oh, good to know." Mai said quietly to herself. She quickly read over their quirk descriptions before Midnight started the match. Like Present Mic said, Meotooku's heartbeat could create pressure waves, which he outputted through the palms of his hands. Chikawa could control her blood veins to shoot out of her body like vines which she could then use to her digression.

"BEGIN!"

At Midnight's signal, Mai turned her attention fully to the battle in hopes she could at least to glean something from it. Meotooku made the first move and sent out a sonic wave through the ground to knock Chikawa off balance, but she was able to shoot out veins from her fingertips to keep herself from falling over. Meotooku didn't give her a second to counter and rearranged his hands so his atmospheric pressure waves were more focused and continually hit Chikawa so she was forced to keep stepping backwards just to stay upright.

"He's going to force her out of bounds," someone in Class 1-K commentated.

"It looks like she's more of a short-to-mid range attacker, so keeping his distance is his only move."

Chikawa was a few steps away from the edge of the battleground when she braced herself and used her veins to create a shield of sorts on her left arm, allowing the waves to slide around her. Digging her feet into the ground, she pushed forward and managed to get about halfway to Meotooku. She reached out her right hand, about to send more veins against him, but was forced back as Meotooku switched tactics and drove her to take a knee. Now Meotooku was producing waves the size of a classroom door and stepped closer and closer to push Chikawa out of bounds. When she was barely a step away from elimination, Midnight lifted her hand to end the match.

"Meotooku's legs have been secured with the capture tape. Chikawa moves on to the next round!"

Everyone froze and stared at Meotooku's legs and, sure enough, they had been wrapped together with capture tape. Looking closer, there was a singular blood vein reaching across the ground where no one was watching from Chikawa's right arm the bottom of Meotooku's legs where it used the capture tape to cinch the match.

Meotooku untangled his legs while Chikawa summoned all her blood back into her. They managed to respectfully shake hands with each other before Meotooku fell to the ground and Chikawa vomited next to him (thankfully she missed Meotooku's unconscious body). Mai winced and filled out the results from the first match into her bracket, only six more to go before she could fly home.

"Their quirks both put serious strain on their bodies," the boy sitting next to Mai said thoughtfully. He had a very kind face despite the red scar-like mark on his forehead and his eyes and hair shared a warm shade of reddish brown. "His quirk utilizes pressure waves and hers messes with the normal blood flow of her body. It's honestly impressive they managed to have such a strong battle before the side effects incapacitated them; it really shows they're truly dedicated and are putting their all into becoming heroes."

"They knew Recovery Girl could tend to them before the next round so they went all out."

Meotooku was brought off the field on a stretcher while Chikawa simply wiped her mouth and went into the arena's stands as if she hadn't just lost her lunch. Midnight looked like she was about to vomit herself while Cementoss simply rearranged the concrete so a volunteer could easily clean the tainted area.

"When you market those two, you would really have to stress their willpower so people forget their limitations."

"Keep in mind they're still first years; they'll probably figure out more ways to use their quirks without it putting as much stress on their bodies."

Yep, that's Class 1-K, always thinking about the selling points. Knowing Ai's class, Mai figured Class 1-G was discussing support items to help elevate the drawbacks of the competitors' quirks, because they weren't a bunch of dweebs. As the area was preparing for the next battle, Mai looked down at the bracket she was given to read a bit about who she'd be battling soon.

It looked like she'd be up against Asamu from Class 1-B. Ruling out the females Mai already knew by name meant Asamu was the girl with the messy bun of purple hair. Apparently her quirk was called Illusion and she could create mirages of a person's strong thought by making physical contact with them. Okay, Mai could probably deal with that, she just had to not think of anything embarrassing and then maybe she could at least put up a fight.

"Benihama?"

"YES?" Mai was suddenly shocked out of her thoughts when one of her classmates called her name and nearly dropped the paper.

"I – I just was asking you your thoughts on the last bout," the boy sitting next to her said.

"Oh, um –" What were her thoughts? Both opponents seemed to rely on their strength without really presenting themselves as outright power heroes, though Mai supposed that also came with the versatile training heroes needed. The match was won by meeting power with power and adding some stealth in before it was all over; which was not to say the loser had a lack of creativity in his methods, he definitely had multiple techniques in his arsenal. In the end, without negating Meotooku's skill and strength, Chikawa won by utilizing her quirk's flexibility before his power overwhelmed her.

"It didn't end the way I thought it might," was all Mai ended up saying.

"Yeah, I didn't think anyone really could expect it," the boy nodded. "And you even fought with them in the last event."

"Well, not really. I only interacted with the two I was paired with when our team split up."

"Right, that makes sense."

It was kind of interesting to see Meotooku fight; with his earnest disposition, Mai didn't expect him to be so formidable. Practically speaking though, his fighting style was just the way his quirk worked, and someone's special abilities was determined by their genetics, not their personality. After all, Ai could obtain more energy by consuming another's life-source, but her character was far from being anything malicious (at least, purposefully malicious).

Almost to provide an antithesis to Mai's thought, Present Mic's voice boomed across the stadium. "Now it's time for the second match! Here we have a truly daunting challenger with serpentine arms that will always keep him company, Nakatsuka Issei from the hero course Class 1-A! Verses: it's the silent assassin of Class 1-C. Quiet as the night itself, she's Niseyoko Michiru!"

The two competitors entered the stadium as Mai checked the notes she had on them. She already knew Niseyoko's Mimic quirk, and it looked like Nakatsuka person – who apparently was the guy with stringy green hair – had a power which transformed his arms into two controllable snakes.

"If you win your first match you'll be up against whoever wins this one, Benihama," one of Mai's classmates sitting behind her said. "Who do you think will win?"

Mai shrugged. Niseyoko was clearly at a disadvantage as a General Studies student whose quirk wasn't suited for face-to-face fights like this, but she was the type who had a lot of secret skills too so Mai couldn't really expect anything for this match. She imagined what a fight between her and Niseyoko would be like, and if she were being honest a good chunk of it would probably involve them awkwardly staring at each other. Mai didn't know anything about Nakatsuka outside the basics written in her bracket, which meant he was even more of a wild card for her.

"Come on, you've got to have some more insight than that; my cousin's got a bet riding on this."

"I, really – I don't know," Mai stuttered. What she wouldn't give to be with Ai right now. "Um, the guy with snake arms, erm," she quickly checked her bracket, "Nakatsuka, well he has more training for this kind of thing."

"Yes, but according to my intel he's an idiot so there's a chance he'll botch the match."

"I guess, I can confirm Niseyoko is very smart, so she has that going for her." Mai bit the inside of her lips, hoping this was the end of the conversation. Thankfully, Midnight had raised her arm to start the fight, drawing all attention to the battleground.

"Competitors, you may begin!"

Quite a contrary to the last match, neither of them began with an immediate attack, which wasn't surprising for Niseyoko, but Mai a least expected Nakatsuka to start charging. Instead, both keeping their distance, Nakatsuka lifted his hands to his mouth to shout across the ring.

"Hey, Class 1-C chick! You afraid of snakes?"

Niseyoko stared at him a moment, then shook her head.

"That's cool beans! Guess I won't be holding back then. Try to keep yourself from getting hurt!" He grabbed his capture tape in his left hand and braced himself with his right. "Lefty, go!"

His arm seemed to stretch and change into the same green of his hair as it transformed into a snake with the capture tape in its mouth. Niseyoko simply watched it shoot towards her before taking a calculated leap backwards, just out of the snake's range and still a safe few steps from the edge of the ring. As Lefty writhed in its attempt to reach her, she simply looked at it as though studying it, still not saying a word.

"Oh cool, you're clever." Nakatsuka laughed as it returned to his side and transformed back into an arm. "Let's see how you do against Righty. You got this, Righty!" Now his right arm shot forward with the capture tape, but for some reason it seemed to have a longer reach than his left arm and Niseyoko had to hold it back with her one arm.

"Can't capture me when you can only reach one limb, can you?" Even though she was mocking her opponent, Niseyoko's voice was still as dreamy as ever, as if she were discussing shapes in the clouds. With a sudden and unexpectedly powerful roundhouse kick, she sent the snake back to Nakatsuka.

"Wow you can really hold your own! After the Sports Fest, we should totally hang out sometime. Okay, guys, time to execute power move Make-Opponent-Go-Splat!" Reaching both of his arms in a V-shape, Nakatsuka's arms both shot forward and hit the ground on either side of Niseyoko and dug their fangs into the cement. Before Niseyoko could brace herself, Nakatsuka leapt in the air and as his arm snakes shortened their length, he came flying toward her like a sling-shot. Only a yard away from colliding, a new voice appeared in the arena.

"Alright Nakatsuka, that's enough."

Instantly Nakatsuka's quirk deactivated at the sound of Mr. Aizawa's voice and landed flat on his face.

"Wait," he said, looking around. "My quirk wasn't actually erased, my body just assumed it was. But where's Mr. Aizawa?"

"Oh, I just Mimicked his voice." Niseyoko said with a small smile on her face. "Now Righty and Lefty, time to tangle yourselves up in this," she said in Nakatsuka's voice, holding out a stretch of her capture tape. At the sound of their master's voice, Nakatsuka's arms transformed into snakes and moved towards her capture tape.

"Wait, no, don't do that!"

The snakes stopped, but were still close enough for Niseyoko to wrap up herself. The match was moments away from being won when Niseyoko sneezed. This wasn't an accidental game-changer in itself, but Niseyoko was the type of person that when she had one sneeze, a sneezing fit was right behind it. Reflexively stepping backwards, Niseyoko tripped over her feet and ended up finishing her sneezes on the ground right out of bounds. Midnight stood for a moment, staring at the ring in shock before raising her arm to end the battle.

"Nakatsuka wins by sheer coincidence! He will move on to the next round!"


	6. Round One and Done

With only one more match before hers, Mai decided to find a way to watch this next battle in the waiting rooms on her own, without all of Class 1-K's attempts at conversation. Unfortunately, since this was the area where students still competing could focus, it seemed just about every hallway was completely bare of any broadcasts or windows or any hint of the Sports Fest happenings. Thankfully, Mai did reach a set of restrooms bordering the student's areas and the public areas where there was an adjacent television showing what anyone needing a bathroom break might have missed. Without anyone around to question it, she leaned against the wall, as if waiting for a friend, and watched the second-to-last fight.

"Our next match is another battle between representatives, one from Class 1-C and the other from hero department's Class 1-B." Mai found it a bit weird to be hearing Present Mic's voice echoing through the halls and again from the broadcast with a small delay, but it was better than watching the festival with the possibility of having to maintain a conversation constantly looming over her. "First we have the dedicated Komura Takahiro, a hero who can get just about everything done with the help of his Clones. His opponent: a truly hard-working student in General Studies, just don't underestimate him; his skin can secrete some useful stuff. Give it up for Motomizu Akihito!"

Komura entered the stadium with a very good-natured smile on his face and the close-up showed his eyes twinkling in anticipation. Motomizu had a much more determined look on his pale pink face, but it seemed more distracted than focused. As the two were getting into position Mai was suddenly alerted to the sound of people from the student's perpendicular hallway coming her way and just about jumped into her bat form.

"No, you need to save your energy," she murmured to herself, forcing herself to remain in her position on the wall. "You've made it farther in the Sports Fest than 95% of first years; there's no need to feel intimidated."

And, of course, when they turned the corner, it was the three members of Class 1-A who already had their first matches of the third event, and thus were in the intimidating 5% of first years. It was opening speech guy – Meotooku, the veins girl who defeated him earlier – Chikawa, and snake arm dude who had just barely made it into the second round – Nakatsuka. It seemed like Meotooku and Chikawa were debriefing Nakatsuka on his bout.

"How could you not have gone into it with a plan?" Chikawa was saying as she readjusted her thick red ponytail. "Did you even consider that she might beat you?"

"Of course I did; my plan was to go plus ultra and push past my limits." Nakatsuka managed to receive a double facepalm from his classmates.

"I can't believe you got lucky enough to make it as far as I am now," Chikawa muttered.

"Nakatsuka, you're going to get yourself killed someday." Meotooku lifted his head, revealing that he was restraining his laughter. "Never change." He looked up and noticed the stream of the Sports Fest Mai was watching. "Oh hey, it's Motomizu's match." He nudged Chikawa, clearly trying to help Motomizu's progress with her.

"They've just about started," she commented. "Come on, if we hurry we can watch it live."

She ran off without waiting for the others. Nakatsuka started to follow her, but then turned around, tactfully saying "Oh right, I had to poop," before slipping into the restroom. Meotooku was about to leave too when his eyes locked with Mai's and he hesitantly stepped forward.

"Beni – hato was it?"

"Benihama."

"Right. Won't you be next?"

"Yeah, I figured I'd watch from where I could quickly get into the arena." Mai didn't mention how she was trying to get some peace.

"Good idea, here I should watch with you."

"Oh, you don't –" But Meotooku had already joined her leaning against the wall watching the television.

The broadcast's audio was purely Present Mic's commentary so Mai couldn't hear if the competitors were saying anything, but it didn't seem to make much difference since the two were acting like gentlemanly professionals. Komura instantly made several clones to surround Motomizu and dog-pile him, pausing only to make sure he wasn't hurt. Motomizu easily slipped through them all, leaving behind a slippery gel, and threw down something that stuck to the edge of his capture tape and kept it in place on the ground. He then leapt forward on all the Komuras before they had a chance to get up and wrapped the whole pile in his capture tape. Midnight leaned forward to see if the match was over, when another Komura who had been laying low on the side politely tapped Motomizu on the shoulder. In a blink, there were now two Komuras, stretching the capture tape in between them and edging Motomizu towards the corner of the battleground.

It was kind of difficult for Mai to really focus with Meotooku standing next to her, clearly wanting to start a conversation without the ability to say anything (Mai could easily decipher the awkward eye shifts she knew she did all the time). She tried to distract herself from the tension by enveloping herself in the match, but with Motomizu's avoidance techniques the action had slowed a bit.

"Oh hey Motomizu's switching up the gels," Nakatsuka suddenly said as he left the bathroom. "You know his gel has different properties depending on which area of his body he secreted it from?" He looked over at where Mai and Meotooku were standing. "What are you guys doing there?"

Mai bit the inside of her lip and resolutely moved her eyes back on the screen. Motomizu threw some of his gel from his arm at Komura's capture tape and, hitting its mark, a long line of sticky gel stretched from Motomizu's body to Komura's capture tape.

"Benihama was watching the event from here and I decided to keep her company," Meotooku said in a business-like way, though Mai could tell he knew the company he was providing was minimal at best.

Yanking on the gel, Motomizu pulled the capture tape out of the hands of Komura and his clone, but then his gel string snapped in the middle and the capture tape flew out-of-bounds.

"Like, you were watching it together-together?"

"Oh no!" Present Mic's voice announced. "That's one capture tape out-of-bounds and another capture tape stuck in a sticky mess. It looks like our challengers are going to have to push the other out if they want to win."

"Of course not. But, I should probably head back to the stands with you," Meotooku added as he made to leave with Nakatsuka.

"Only if you want to," Mai interjected before she could even think through her own words. "I mean, you don't have to feel obligated either way." She quickly turned her attention back to the Sports Fest. With both capture tapes out of the picture, Komura and Motomizu were keeping their distance while they each tried to think up a new strategy.

"Oh," Meotooku said, taken aback. "Okay."

"Whatever," Nakatsuka shrugged and headed back into the student's section and Meotooku returned to his position on the wall.

"You don't have to feel bad for not knowing what to say," Mai whispered softly. "I'm used to being quiet."

"I just didn't want you to be all alone, but I guess staying made it worse."

"I appreciate the thought," Mai shrugged. "But you don't need to force anything."

Motomizu was now throwing the gel from his palms in front of him so he could slide out of reach of all Komura's clones while they all tried to corner him. Being able to secrete different kinds of gel really made him a strong opponent seeing as he was able to use it to slide across surfaces, stick to things, stretch between stuff, and at one point he used it to make something like marbles to trip up Komura. Mai wondered if any of his gel was edible, like gelatin, and immediately regretted her entire existence for letting that thought happen.

"That's the way to do it!" Meotooku suddenly cheered as all the Komura clones hit their time limit and vanished, leaving only one from the crowd. "Get him out fast before your gel runs dry!"

"I didn't think you knew Motomizu," Mai said.

"Yeah, a little; he, Chikawa, and I all went to the same middle school. We usually end up walking to school together since we're coming from the same area."

"That's nice you got to start the year with friends," Mai nodded. He seemed the kind of person who could use that kind of support.

"Well, I guess we're classmates so we're friends, but it's not like we're 'friends-friends' – alright you got him!" He shouted at the screen as Motomizu used the string-like gel combined with the slippery gel he had been spreading all over the ground to swing the final Komura out of bounds. Midnight lifted her arm to call the match when Komura disappeared, apparently another clone. In the confusion, the real Komura sprinted from where he had been waiting, forgotten by everyone else, to give Motomizu a strong shove out of the arena, truly ending the fight.

"Oof," Meotooku winced. "Good fight, Motomizu, you held out a long time." He immediately stopped watching the broadcast and sheepishly looked down at the ground away from Mai. "Sorry for shouting; I know he can't hear me."

"Don't worry about it," Mai said in an attempt to console his awkwardness. "Well, I'm next. Nice watching with you I –" She bit her tongue before she could say 'I guess', knowing it would destroy any ounce of self-confidence Meotooku still had. Looking at his earnest but conflicted face, she felt a pang in her chest as she realized how similar they were with their socialization struggles, though where she was shy around new people, he seemed to constantly switch between reaching out to others and stepping back from them. Despite his awkwardness, he really was a good guy, maybe he just needed others in the same way Mai sometimes felt she needed Ai.

"Hey, if you're ever looking for someone to have lunch with, feel free to find me." Mai said. "My sister and I would love to have your company."

Meotooku seemed taken aback by the invitation, but before he could respond one of Mai's classmates abruptly walked by them.

"Oh good you're already here, Benihama, I was just thinking you should probably start heading over to your match."

"Mm-hm, that's why I've been waiting here." Mai nodded, suddenly feeling all her body's heat rush into her face. Keeping her head down, she hurried past her classmate towards her designated entrance to the arena grounds. "Thanks though."

"Good thinking there," her classmate continued talking even though Mai was already rounding the corner. He acted like she had been idly sitting in the stands during the last fight; did Class 1-K even notice she wasn't watching with them anymore?

On the bright side, her classmate showing up did finalize the conversation (of sorts) she was having with that Class 1-A rep dude. Urgh, inviting him to eat lunches with her and Ai, what was she thinking? That all the people she met at the Sports Fest would become the best of friends after this, having picnics together and singing around the fire?

"Just keep it together," she muttered to herself as she reached the tunnel to the battleground and waited for her cue to enter. At this point she was the only student not from the Hero Department who had a chance of moving on in the Sports Fest, meanwhile all the other competitors were focused on honing in their skills since this was a time for them to be scouted; they actually had something riding on their battle performance. Realistically speaking, Mai should be surprised if anyone she met at the festival even remembered her name, attempting any form of bonding with them would just be stupid. Even the Management Department used this time to network at most, not make friends. Why was Mai even trying with the people around her?

"We've hit the final match of the first round!" Present Mic announced, the cue for Mai to shove all her thoughts out of the way until she could be done with this. "This fight will between someone who's in touch with her enemy's emotions and someone who's in touch with her animal side, it's Asamu Risa from Hero Department Class 1-B and Benihama Mai from Management Department Class 1-K! Wait – can bats camouflage?"

Mai looked at the jumbo screen to see what Present Mic was talking about, only to feel even more embarrassed. (Seriously, it was like the Sports Fest was trying to set a record for how many times Mai could want to hide her face in one day.) The screen showed the school's Sports Fest profile pictures for the two competitors, which apparently had to be taken separately from their official school pictures, probably so people could see the students in their gym uniforms as they would be for the event. Her opponent – Asamu, that's who Present Mic said she was – looked fairly good with a cool smirk and her arms folded behind her back, giving the impression she had something on you. Mai remembered by the time they got to Class 1-K, the photographer was trying to wrap it up as quickly as possible and while taking Mai's picture, she sneezed so violently she had leaned out of the frame and her Sports Fest picture was an empty photo, not even a hint of a human being there.

Thanks to Present Mic's comment, Mai could feel everyone looking at her and wondering if her Bat Transform also had the ability to basically become invisible. As she reached the concrete square serving as the fight ring, even her opponent Asamu was looking at her questioningly. She was a slender girl who seemed to always be on her tip-toes, her brilliant purple hair tied up in a messy bun and her greeny-blue eyes piercing everything. Wait, was Asamu's powers of illusion activated via physical contact or eye contact? Had Mai already ruined her chances? Well, that wasn't really possible; ruining her chances would imply Mai had any chance at winning at the start. Mai readied her given capture tape in her hand and braced herself to transform as she watched Midnight raise her arm to start the match. Even if no one after today remembered Mai faught alongside them in the Sports Fest, she could still go plus ultra, specifically with the purpose of not dying.

"Challengers, you may begin!"

Mai immediately transformed and flapped around a little as a bat before realizing she couldn't access the capture tape in her bat form; as an inanimate object directly connected to her body, it went into her bat form, just like her clothes did. Well, shoot. And it wasn't like she could push someone out of bounds in her bat form either, so her quirk was completely useless for this kind of battle. Double shoot.

Mai transformed back and suddenly thought she might have flown out of bounds in her bat form, it wasn't like she was paying attention while awkwardly waving around her wing with the capture tape absorbed into it. In her rush to check where she was standing (and see she was in the exact middle of the cement square) she felt something hit her shoulder and whipped around to see Asamu landing a beautiful handspring. Asamu playfully lifted the hand that managed to make physical contact with Mai. "Gotcha," she laughed. "Distraction!"

Alright, this setback wasn't an automatic loss, all Mai had to do was figure out a way to reach Asamu without being confused by her quirk or using Bat Transform. The bracket of information Komura had given her described Asamu's ability as creating illusions, which meant everyone could see them, and thus the images could also trip up Asamu. The advantage here would go to the person least affected by the mirages.

Mai quickly closed her eyes to keep herself from seeing the illusions, before recognizing this too as a terrible idea. Being able to see is a little necessary to wrap someone's limbs in capture tape, even with echolocation. Let's see, was there a way for Mai to see without actually seeing, like using a smokescreen or making everything a blur? Oh right, that's how Mai naturally saw the world.

With a dramatic flair, Mai opened her eyes and ripped off her glasses, tossing them aside as she made the human versions of the clicking noises her quirk used to echolocate. Okay, Asamu was still standing where she landed her handspring, and since Mai was farsighted, she could actually make out Asamu's face a bit. "Can't be misled by something I can't see right?" Mai called to her opponent. "Good luck distracting me now; without my glasses I'm blind as a... bat. I hate myself." She muttered after hearing what ridiculously ironic idiom had escaped her mouth.

Mai maintained her echolocation pinpointed on the defined figure with the purple mesh on top and started to amble across the stage. She probably should run, but with all the colorful blurs dancing in and out of her vision, Mai settled on just speed-walking so she could better focus on her echolocation.

Despite this, Mai was face to face with Asamu (even though she couldn't really see her face) a moment later. Readying her capture tape, Mai realized just how little she thought through this plan. What, was Asamu just going to hold her arms out on a silver platter? She may not have moved since activating her quirk, but Mai couldn't quite make out the details enough to chase down Asamu's arms. Using the same thread of pitiful strategy that seemed to be Mai's trademark for the Sports Fest, she stretched the capture tape between her two arms and attacked Asamu in a tackle hug to pin her arms down.

This was also not well thought through. Mai and Asamu crashed to the ground and for a brief and terrifying moment Mai felt her lungs lose all their air. Once she could breathe again, Mai heard the words she never thought would happen.

"Benihama has secured Asamu with her capture tape; she will move on to the second round!"


End file.
